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Oops

According to Thompson’s email, the district found a $4.5 million discrepancy during a yearly financial review.

Finance Director Mike Burlager mentioned the error during the school board’s Truth in Taxation meeting Dec. 12, but did not mention the exact amount. Soon after, Thompson mentioned a $5 million shortfall.

Of course, if it were a charter school, the state would have SWAT team locking the doors by now.

“spending exceeded the budget in 14 out of 19 expenditure categories” Maybe more of an UFFDA than an oops. New software, lack of guidance for staff, and a “few” miscalculations led to the SNAFU. If this were the private sector Burlager wouldn’t be hanging around till June to retire.

“…caused concern among residents after being posted to Facebook.”
Let’s hope it caused concern with Sheriff Taylor, Deputy Fife and the Bunko Squad down at the Shakopee PD.
“…I saw some pitchforks and torches in the crowd.” Come on BH429, that’s everyday in Shakopee on a day ending with a ‘y’. You been in the cities too long.

In most companies, as Scott notes, you require executive permission before going beyond budgetary limits, and standard software used for finance implements this automatically. I’m calling “nonsense” (BS) on Burlager.

But that said, a 2-3% overspending on the budget “by accident” doesn’t bother me as much as times I see 50% overspending on purpose. For example, when the Chaska School District built Chanhassen High, they added 2-3x more capacity than they needed. OK, a little for growth, I get that, but they blew tens of millions on that deal.

I actually went to a school board meeting and asked why, and was told that the time value of money was that it’s better to borrow now (exactly wrong of course), and that it’s prohibitively expensive to add on to a building, which is also exactly wrong.